KINGSTON – Democrat David Clegg appears headed to becoming the new Ulster County District Attorney in January.
Following Board of Elections count of absentee ballots, he had 77 more votes than his Republican opponent Michael Kavanagh.
Democratic Elections Commissioner Ashley Dittus said two other ballots may be challenged by Republican attorneys and if found valid, the tally wo0uld rise to a 79 vote margin.
Kavanagh still has the right to appeal the vote, which would result in a costly, further prolonged count, Dittus said.
Clegg is cautiously optimistic noting the ball is in the Republican court as to if they want to challenge the results, as well as the 100 votes objected to by the GOP. “If an appeal would turn out to allow those votes to be counted in a different way, they have some options. The other there is a recount possibility where these machines are supposed to be accurate to 0.01 percent as I understand it, but there might be some votes there if the machines were inaccurate in some way,” he said. “So they have to decide whether or not between those two options there would be enough votes to catch up to me.”
Following election day, the candidates were in a dead heat tie resulting in the need for the absentee ballots to be counted.
